191 - Shooting For The Stars

We mentioned the Gemara in Sota 48b, which states that a person who is going through a severe financial struggle, to the point that although they do have food for today, they literally do not know how they are going to manage for tomorrow, and nevertheless the Gemara had stated that if one feels anxious in such a situation, they are considered a person of little emunah. As we've discussed many times, seeing as emunah is our ultimate purpose and main focus whilst we are alive in this world, it is easy to understand how this is going to be our life's work. The goal is not to master emunah overnight and perhaps even over many years, because there are many many levels. Our goal on a day to day basis and the way we achieve true success is by making our maximum effort in growing as high as we can in our emunah and bitachon efforts. 

When the Gemara states that if I only have food for today and I have no idea what I'm going to do for tomorrow, that I'm supposed to feel calm because I know, just like Hashem has always looked after me in so many other ways, He'll come through for me again; perhaps there are only a few people that after many years of growth in their emunah and bitachon can reach such a level that were they to be in such a dire situation, they would feel completely calm with no anxiety whatsoever because they are 100% clear about the fact that their sustenance is completely independent of their job, of their efforts or anything else going on in their life, but rather is exclusively dependent on Hashem Himself and just because to my limited human eye it seems like I am in trouble, but let me remind myself, Hashem is the one that created the world and He created me and if He created me He obviously has a plan for where my sustenance is supposed to come from. If I internalize that Hashem is truly the one who is exclusively providing for me, then there is no reason to feel anxious. 

Again, such a high level is probably not relevant to most of us today, but the Gemara is teaching us where to shoot at. This is the ideal level and course of living that we're supposed to aim at. Our goal is to make our maximum effort to grow higher and higher in our reliance on Hashem in feeling more calm and less anxious when troubles seem to present themselves. If there is potential reason for me to feel anxiety because of my financial situation, whether in the extreme case like the Gemara is outlining to us that I might not even have food for tomorrow, or perhaps I know what I'm doing for the next month but thereafter I feel like I might be in a bit of trouble. Even if before learning about Emunah and Bitachon my anxiety level would be at a 10 and now by learning Emunah and Bitachon and trying to take these messages to heart and apply them in a practical way, I would only have an anxiety level of 9 - that is a tremendous accomplishment.

If we are to take to heart what the many Torah commentaries write, that our main focus in this world should be directed to our Emunah and Bitachon efforts, we should certainly treat it as highest priority to make our maximum effort to be exposed to Emunah and Bitachon as much as possible. Baruch Hashem, in our day and age there are many recordings available, there are many books available, for all levels, and our effort needs to be to find what inspires us the most, to grow in our Emunah and Bitachon, and the more time, energy and effort that we put into learning about Emunah and Bitachon and thereafter taking the concepts that we might have learnt and contemplating on them, trying to take them to heart and live by their values in a practical way throughout our lives, the more we will be achieving our purpose in this world.